


A Means of Surviving

by Merfilly



Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015), Star Wars Original Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Artificial Intelligence, Canon Compliant, Gen, sort of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-30
Updated: 2017-01-30
Packaged: 2018-09-20 23:09:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,238
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9520091
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: K-2SO had his own self-protection protocols. To Save himself, he knew he had to have Cassian. To have Cassian... he would have to have them all.Or, Rogue One survives, in a very droid-logical way.





	

K-2SO had ample processing capability for multi-tasking and information streaming. He could do everything Cassian needed, and guard them, yet he knew the odds of any of them making it out alive were near astronomical against them. There was something of both his self-preservation and the more abstract, confusing loyalty to Cassian that balked at that.

He could not just preserve himself. Nor could he do for Cassian what he intended without taking into account the strings that had bound him to the team of misfits in the span of just a few days.

Hijacking Imperial resources, coding with Rebel Alliance encryption, K-2SO took all of his memories, his algorithms of each member of the team, and crafted them in data bursts that would seek one another out, eventually reassemble.

It was survival, of a sort.

+++

Luke had logged into the database to search all he could about the Force and Jedi, hoping to learn more about his father, about Ben, about what he was supposed to do now.

_The Force is with me and I am one with the Force._

The small saying popped up on every term he searched, which was a far cry from the usual adage about the Force.

_The Force protected me._

Luke looked around, trying to see if maybe one of the slicers was having fun with him. Was there a glitch on the Rebel Net, concerning things of the Force? If there was nothing to know, why not just say that?

 _The Force sees you, finds your needs, guides you to the answers. Can you hear them, though?_

Now Luke could only stare at the screen, feeling like it was talking directly to him. He hesitated, then typed out a question in the search box.

_How do I listen for answers, when I don't even have the questions?_

There was a very long moment after he hit 'search' and it popped up a null-answer page, and Luke leaned back, wondering if maybe he ought to try to sleep instead of this fruitless searching.

_Listen, and even the questions will be heard._

_About as helpful as a blind monk,_ appeared right behind that on the screen, before it went dark, and took Luke back to the generic search page.

It would not, however, be the last time that the Rebel Net guided him him with the cryptic comments, always punctuated and ending with a blunt or strongly worded sentence that seemed as if it were from an entirely different person.

+++

Lando rubbed his face as he logged in. He needed to know all he could about the way the Rebellion actually worked, now that he had thrown himself into it. Who would have thought Tanaab would haunt him even now, or that they would trust him so far?

Then again, this assault was going to be a suicide run for a lot of the pilots taking it on. Maybe they thought he'd get himself killed. He studied the theoretical map of the Rebellion hierarchy, noting that ranks and titles littered it in that way of an anarchistic society trying to keep everyone on equal footing while recognizing mob rule did not work for long term resistance.

_Careful who you trust. Pro-Republic and Separatist factions didn't mean much when this all came together, but if this ends it? You can bet it will matter in the long run._

The message was from 'CSSNNDR', a sign Lando had never seen before, and he had not meant to log into the chat function. The advice, though, was pretty spot on, from Lando's point of view. He was old enough to remember the war, old enough to remember the waves of violence and internal bickering that had grown up in support of or against the war, to have heard of systems being divided in which side they thought was right.

_Some people will do what they think is right, for the end goal, only to prove they lost sight of the big picture. Don't make that mistake._

Lando shivered, staring at that one, trying to put memories of Bespin behind him, or other moments he had made the decision that benefited himself and his assets or connections, without caring about the smaller sacrifices.

Sacrifices like Han being lost to the bounty hunter never should have happened though.

 _Learned that lesson. I'll keep my eyes open,_ he told the mysterious messenger, never getting another reply after that.

+++

Jerjerrod rubbed his face in weary frustration. Nothing he did seemed to matter. Every problem he solved revealed another, and the battle station kept falling behind schedule. 

It didn't matter that they were working from half-burned notes recovered from Eadu. It didn't matter that the Emperor had insisted on scaling it up. It didn't matter that there were no plans whatsoever to work from, as every Imperial slicer that had tried to recover the original ones had either defected or been found mindless and drooling at their work station.

The station was a failure, and it was Jerjerrod's fault, if e couldn't get it back on track.

He logged in on his work terminal, tracking the day's progress, and grimaced as it tried to blur out and go staticky on him, again.

That damnable KayTooEssOh virus that kept plaguing their efforts was proving all but impossible to eradicate, adding to his frustrations.

+++

_Hope._

Leia blearily looked at the message in the bottom of her terminal. She had to smile, despite her fatigue, despite how hard it was to get comfortable with the baby kicking and moving so much.

She had never, to her knowledge, met the sender that signed these messages as 'Stardust', but the messages almost always popped up when she most needed them. Some of them had inspired her best speeches.

_Don't worry. I plan to keep that alive, even if I have to go into hiding again, and do it all from the shadows._

_Rebellions are built on it. You are the face of that, now._

_And I won't stop Resisting until I take my last breath,_ Leia promised, rubbing her stomach to settle her child before she went back to analyzing why the expenditures had her so certain the Empire had not died, merely transformed into something new.

+++

"Has there ever been someone like me?" Finn asked, not that there would be an answer. Rey was gone again, and Poe… Poe was snoring. 

He looked down at the data pad, trying again to educate himself away from the propaganda that burned in his mind as the only education he had known.

_You are brave, to listen to your heart, and make it right._

Finn smiled as the user called 'Rogue Messenger' popped that at him. Poe wasn't sure who it was, but the user was always reassuring him at his lowest moments.

 _Do you know if there were other defectors? From the Empire or the First Order?_ Finn asked.

There was a very long pause, and then the words popped up, letter by letter.

_There was the Pilot, though many forgot he was from the Empire. A man told him to be brave, follow his heart. You did not have to be told. That makes you more than even he was._

Finn considered that, then started searching the forums, trying to learn of the Pilot, and reminding himself to ask Poe.

Maybe, just possibly, he wasn't unique, and that meant maybe he could help others resist.


End file.
